Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, said: "Under the current situation in Baghdad, that could have a devastating effect on the citizens."

Al-Zamili's arrest and the raid on the health ministry came as Iraqi and US troops fanned out across the capital in part of a long-awaited security crackdown.

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has pledged to tackle both Shia and Sunni fighters in the Baghdad offensive. Critics have said previous offensives failed because he avoided going after Shia groups.

Abdel Mahdi al-Matiri, an official in Sadr's movement, said: "Zamili is in the government. Maliki should not just keep watching. Maybe tomorrow they will arrest him too."

Car bombs

Despite the US military's Baghdad security plan, which officials said got under way on Wednesday, violence continued in the capital city.

A car bomb in Baghdad killed six people and wounded 10 others.

"When they arrest anyone from the Sadr movement they make these sorts of accusations"

Waleed al-Zamili, Zamili's brother

The blast was reported to have occurred close to a Sunni mosque in al-Ameen, which lies in the Nissan district.

Seventeen people also died and at least 25 were wounded by a car bomb in Al-Aziziya, southeast of Baghdad.

In Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, four policemen and a civilian died during an attack on a patrol, security sources said.

The US military plan to secure Baghdad's most dangerous districts will see about 30 security stations manned by Iraqi police and army units set up and kept under 24-hour US troop surveillance.